The former Kmart building at the Cherryland Center – now owned by and home to the Traverse City Curling Club – is undergoing a rebranding as the new Center for Lifetime Engagement, Activity, and Renewal (CLEAR). Local entrepreneurs Lowell Gruman, Bruce Byl, and Casey Cowell are spearheading an ambitious effort to bring new investment to the site and make the CLEAR Center a bustling community hub featuring the Curling Club and Traverse City Philharmonic, on-site solar energy, multifamily housing, and new tenants ranging from 24/7 Golf to a possible trampoline park, roller rink, and/or national retail store.

The trio is working to raise $4.5 million from accredited investors in the Traverse City area – combined with another $1.5 million in bank financing – to purchase the Kmart building from the Curling Club. The Curling Club will remain a tenant in the space under a long-term lease and will continue to manage on-site operations as building manager. Due to both depreciation and the Kmart building’s location in an Opportunity Zone – a designation for economically distressed areas – restructuring ownership under an LLC can provide significant tax breaks and help drive new investment in the property, Gruman says.

That’s something the Curling Club itself couldn’t do. The nonprofit also never set out to own a building as large as Kmart, Gruman says, which clocks in at roughly 87,000 square feet and is part of a larger 10-acre lot. Buying the building was the only solution the Curling Club could find for achieving its real goal: building its 28,000-square-foot curling facility. “We were so focused on getting the curling center built, we didn't think a lot about (the rest of the site),” Gruman says. “Our goal wasn’t to be a building owner.”

The curling center’s opening last year brought new foot traffic and energy to the Cherryland Center that has attracted other interest to the site. The Traverse City Philharmonic (formerly Traverse Symphony Orchestra) signed a lease to become the next anchor tenant in the building, with the nonprofit’s new headquarters and a community music school under construction now for a targeted fall opening. A third tenant, 24/7 Golf – which has locations in Ludington and Grand Rapids offering 24/7 golf simulators and pickleball courts – just signed a lease last week and is beginning a construction buildout, according to Gruman.

That still leaves about 25,000 square feet of remaining space available, Gruman says. Interested tenants have ranged from a roller rink to a trampoline park to a national furniture retailer. There are no formal agreements yet with any of those prospective tenants, but “we’d like to get that space leased as soon as possible,” Gruman says. The Curling Club also recently sold a one-acre parcel fronting Garfield north of Wendy’s that is under construction now as a multi-tenant commercial building, including a planned Starbucks.

With momentum building, Gruman, Byl, and Cowell see the potential for the newly christened CLEAR Center to become a “vibrant community gathering place that will host artistic, athletic, and cultural activities,” according to a group statement. The trio is pursuing additional partnerships to meet that goal. One is with Heritage Sustainable Energy, which will install solar panels on the building roof this summer. That will lower energy costs for tenants and help the Curling Club literally build “ice from the sun,” the trio notes.

Another partnership could meet both a community need and a long-identified Garfield Township goal: bringing housing to the mall property. Innovo – the development group behind Breakwater Apartments in downtown Traverse City – is exploring a partnership to bring multifamily housing to the northern section of the property. “We think it’ll be a great fit for the site,” says Innovo’s Brian Mullally. “We’re still working on the model, but we’re looked at mixed-income, multi-generational, for-rent apartments, likely to be income-based. The land is underutilized, and activating it with housing – with all the amenities right around it – will create more vibrancy there.” Mullally says Innovo is “trying to move forward as quickly” as possible on a plan to present to Garfield Township for approval.

Given the declining state of malls and national big-box stores, Garfield Township made sweeping changes to its zoning rules in 2018 to allow more flexibility on the types of businesses and uses that are allowed by right on mall properties, including indoor entertainment centers, recreation facilities, and multifamily housing. The township’s new draft master plan also contemplates offering more development flexibility to mall properties. When identifying community priorities in 2022, township officials cited the redevelopment of the Cherryland Center as chief among their goals. Township Planning Director John Sych said the township’s vision was to have an “active space” with a mix of community uses, such as housing and diverse commercial/retail.

Growth beyond the Kmart building in the Cherryland Cetner could help bring that vision to life. Dr. Ulysses Walls – a northern Michigan cardiologist who has purchased the formers Sears building and is planning to bring a K1 Speed indoor go-kart racing center to Traverse City – has started renovations with the goal of opening the business by late summer. High Tops, a planned new restaurant/bar/entertainment center that was originally slated to go into the Grand Traverse Mall, received township approval last week to move its liquor license to the Cherryland Center instead. The new restaurant is slated to go into the former Sears store next to K1, according to Sych. Township officials have discussed eventually creating an updated comprehensive plan for the Cherryland Center – addressing issues like signage and traffic flow – to help the once-dying mall function as a cohesive development as it comes back to life.

For Byl – who came to Traverse City as a college student in the late 1970s, shopped and worked at businesses at the Cherryland Center in its heyday, and witnessed its gradual decline – being part of the group working to revitalize the property has been both emotionally and financially rewarding. “I invested early on, and I’m very satisfied I took a leap of faith,” he says. “There’s momentum now, there’s no question about it. We see this project as a way of giving back to Traverse City...since we have the available property, we feel a responsibility to do our share.”